Seven Critical Qualifying Questions

Prior to making a call on a prospect, you want your salesperson to get the answers to as many of these seven critical questions as possible. Resources could be the prospect company web site or past sales reps who have contacted the prospect company, etc.

The amount of information that can be collected in advance will vary for each prospect. But without fail, once your salesperson is in front of someone in the prospect company, he or she should ask bold, direct questions:

"Do you have the authority to implement this decision?"

"Has this item been budgeted? Does it need to be? Do you have the funds available?"

Your salesperson will not get the answers that qualify the lead every time, but it is better to walk away from a sales cycle that will lead nowhere.

Getting to the Decision Maker

Teach your salespeople to convince the influencers to take them to the decision makers. That retains the relationship with the influencer, while opening an opportunity to the decision maker.

If they must, they should go over the influencer's head without permission. This will almost certainly alienate the influencer. But if the sale is going nowhere, your salespeople may have to take that risk.

Ask yourself: Can our sales strategy overcome the loss of this influencer? If the answer is yes, it's a reasonable risk.

Copyright 2005 Rob Halvorsen. All rights reserved. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Halvorsen is the webmaster and operator of SalesCareersOnline.com one of internet's fastest growing career web sites dedicated exclusively to the sales and marketing industry! Visit SalesCareersOnline.com at: http://www.salescareersonline.com/. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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